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Manage Money On A Mac With A Checkbook

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Way back in the day, back when the Mac was popular and Quicken was not a dirty word, I kept too much financial information on Intuit’s popular money manager app for the Mac. Checkbooks, accounts, credit cards, banking info, and more were the hallmark of the last good version of Quicken for Mac (back in 2007) before Intuit abandoned the Mac, right before the Mac’s marketshare exploded.

Intuit quit updating Quicken for the Mac for many years. Many of us saw the handwriting on the wall and started to search for different solutions to manage what little money we had left at the end of a month. That’s when I turned to a simpler, better solution on my Mac. Checkbook Pro is an affordable personal money manager without the torture inflicted by complex money apps that are confusing to use and here today, gone tomorrow.

I’ve been using Checkbook Pro since Intuit left the Mac years ago. Basically, it’s a digital checkbook with a few extra features. What you get for very little money is a mature Mac app that works pretty much like a check book. It’s a single window interface so it’s simple to navigate and it works like an analog check book. Set up accounts, enter transactions, totals are updated automatically, while you watch.

Fortunately, there’s nothing magical about Check Book except an adherence to simplicity. Create categories for your transactions. Set up scheduled entries to pay bills at the same time each month. Transfer money between accounts. Click to view an account summary.

Each entry automatically updates the totals, so it works similarly to your check book, except you don’t have to do the math to keep everything in sync.

Bells and whistles? Not much. There’s no automatic bill paying. No tracking of stocks or mutual funds. Just basic single entry accounting system that works as if your entire fortune is in your checking or savings account.

The Pro version costs a bit more and has a few more features. What’s missing is an iPhone version that syncs with the Mac version. I take my iPhone to more places than my Mac where I write checks or charge on my credit card so having a mobile version would be a big plus. Not much has changed with Checkbook Pro through the years so don’t expect all kinds of features. It’s a digital checkbook and reconciliation app. Nothing less, nothing more, but certainly worth the money if all you need is a very good, very accurate checkbook that is not easily used while you’re shopping (which might be a benefit because you spend less if your checkbook doesn’t make a trip with you).

Bank On It

Manage your money and control finances better than Quicken with Banktivity 7. Start with templates and setup event based budgets, track bills, check investments and monitor assets, record all your transactions, view reports, and sync between Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

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